[Bleach Fanfic] THE FINAL BATTLE

Back in 2006, I wrote a fanfic where Ichigo’s hollow form kills aizen, most of Soul Society is wiped out in the fallout and Rukia is Captain Commander, 10 years later. Then after Isshin’s backstory was releaved, I wrote this.
Goodbye, Bleach. You shall be missed.
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The First Death

He awakens to screams in the distance; his eyes slowly focus on the world around him.

Everything is shaky. He looks around and notices his hands and his white robes stained spectacularly red. He remembers. The pain takes a moment to return, and it makes him grimace. But his agony is drowned by the animal screams which originate somewhere near. Gin is surprised to be alive. That creature, drunk on power, didn’t even make sure whether his enemies were truly dead. He considered them beneath him. But Gin intends to make him pay for that, to try and try till one of them is obliterated.

The screams jolt him back into the present. He staggers on to his feet and picks up his sword, reddened by blood and blackened by the taint of that thing inside Aizen. Repeated shockwaves hinder his progress, but he makes his way towards the epicenter of the battle.

Gin gets as close as he can to the fight without the reiatsu knocking him out again. Dust and crackling electricity along with the spiritual pressure of the two combatants almost overwhelms him. He squints and tries to make out the two fighters. Their inhuman speed makes their movements hard to follow. One of them is in white, the same white as Gin, a halo around his body contorted out of human shape. Even in his inhuman form, Aizen is easily recognizable. The other one is all black, an oppressive presence which cuts through everything around it. Black kimono, black hollow mask, a hole through the chest. He is shocked to realize that Ichigo looks exactly like the hollow they had used in their attempt to take Isshin down, all those years ago. This creature that was once Ichigo is no longer a shinigami or a Vizored; it is a hollow, fighting purely using instinct. Aizen’s experiment has come back to destroy him; the irony of the situation does not escape Gin, even in his wounded state.

Suddenly, the battle stops and in a moment that seems to last forever, Gin sees a sight that he would never have expected. His eyes open wide in surprise. The hollow holds up Aizen by the throat, oblivious to his flailing and struggles. It bends its head and gores Aizen with its horns right where the blackness stands out in the middle of the white. Aizen’s unearthly scream followed by a reiatsu blast makes Gin grimace and fall to his knees momentarily.

When he looks again, he sees Aizen on his knees, his torso mangled and bloodied. He looks up at the monster which has taken him down, and even from far away, Gin can make out the terror in Aizen’s eyes. What is… was Ichigo now has the Hogyoku suspended between its horns as it looks down upon Aizen, the Hogyouku glowing red with the power of the cero forming there. A fraction of a second before the blast, Aizen’s eyes turn lifeless as he gives in. The cero catches him full on the face, and a moment later his headless body collapses on the ground.

The Second Release.

The Hollow/Ichigo looks up and lets out another scream as blasts from the Hogyouku turn the sky black. The lightning makes Gin’s skin crackle. He knows that he has moments to take that hollow down, because once the Hogyouku fuses with the hollow, even the combined power of soul society won’t be able to kill it. He also knows it means certain death for him, but he does not care anymore. Aizen is dead after all. He will do anything to protect the ones dear to him. There is no other way.

Pooling together his remaining strength, his releases his bankai. The resulting effort makes him stagger. He breaks into a run towards the vortex of black in the middle of the road. His sharp, calculating mind tells him that he has barely a few seconds before the Hogyouku fuses with the hollow and it notices Gin. He knows that he stands no chance once that happens. He isn’t even sure whether this will work. His only chance is the chink of blade that he had stabbed Aizen with earlier. He silently hopes it has contaminated the Hogyouku, since that is his only opening.

The Third Sacrifice.

With graceful movements which defy his wounds, Gin leaps towards Ichigo and plunges his sword into the hogyouku. Unsurprisingly, it buries itself all the way to the hilt. Ichigo shrugs, and a stray blast sends Gin flying several feet away. While still airborne, he mutters under his breath, making the poison take effect. The next cero fizzles out halfway and it falls to its knees. Unable to comprehend what is happening, it turns towards Gin, now a body without strength lying on the ground, waiting for his fate to come get him. Ichigo’s hollow mask cracks partially, and Gin notices that Ichigo’s face is contorted in pain. Ichigo tries pulling the sword out, but wails in agony the moment he touches it. The poison turns his fingers the flaky texture of charcoal, and his movements start to cramp up. Gin realizes that his plan is working. He also realizes that he has only a few moments to live. He shields his eyes as the next cero, unable to find a way out, backfires. His last memory is that of a blinding flash.

Far away, Isshin jumps from rooftop from rooftop with Matsumoto’s unconscious body in his arms. The explosion throws him off balance, and he notices that both Ichigo’s and Aizen’s reiatsu have disappeared. He makes his way to where the blast originated. A circle of scorched earth a few hundred square meters in diameter is all that is left. In the centre, there is a fragment of a black mask and the hilt of a disintegrating zanpaktou. Ishhin looks mournfully at the mask, asks silently for Masaki’s forgiveness, and continues on towards Soul Society.